Sermon Outline:

Assurance is based on deed-doing, truth-keeping, love-giving, and Holy Spirit-abiding.

Prayer:

Holy Father, by the Spirit you have given your scriptures through the prophets and apostles. Once again, we have read in a spirit of reverence from your Holy Book and now we seek to know and understand your scriptures. Open up this text to us today, we ask.  Aide the preacher and aid us to hear, understand, and live out your Word. We pray in Jesus’ precious name.

In my several trips to India I would occasionally stroll through the fabric shops where I would admire the bolts of beautiful cloth that were being sold so that women in particular could make their lovely traditional sarees. Each saree consists of a single piece of cloth 5 ½ to 6 yards long, wrapped around the woman’s body. Many of these cloths are truly lovely, crafted by skilled designers.

What we have been seeing in the book of 1 John is a magnificently woven piece of Biblical cloth, Biblical literature, five chapters long, with each strand, each thread, each thought tied intimately to the other stands of thought to produce a magnificent piece of divine revelation which is so rich that it is almost unfathomable to be able to grasp all of it together. Each thought, each truth flows into a related thought, and it is all formed into one piece of God-givens revelation  that we could spend a lifetime unraveling and examining each part and tying it all together and seeking to understand and embrace it all.

What flowed from John’s quill was something greater and more magnificent than he could have produced in his own knowledge – it is truly revelation of the Holy Spirit – given through the mind and pen of the human instrument, the Apostle John.

Oh, that the Lord would use us also in our day and time, that the Spirit of God would speak his Word through us to others to bring glory to Christ and bring salvation to them. John was just a fisherman whom Christ called to himself. He can likewise use each of us in the station of life where we are to be his instruments to bring life and salvation to others. Let’s pray this will happen in all our lives. “Lord, make each of us instruments to bring the living Christ to others. Amen.”

Verse 19 of our 1 John 3 reads, “¹⁹ By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him. John is talking here about us “knowing” something, about us being sure about something, not doubting. He says, “By this we shall know that we are of the truth..” What is the “this” he is talking about? We have to look at the context of this statement, so we have to go back to the previous verse, verse 18 says, ¹⁸ Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth. Here John is telling us what real Christian love is, it is not just word or speech, but it manifests itself in action and truth.

What John is saying here is that the way we can reassure out hearts before God is by loving others, loving the brothers and sisters in the church, in action and in truth. This is what I want to call today “deed-doing” and “truth-keeping.”

Look at what v. 19 says, “¹⁹ By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.” John is talking about the need for “reassurance.” Sometimes we Christians need reassurance that we are really God’s children, that we really belong to him, that we are really Christians. This is especially truth if we sin against God and we may question as to whether we really belong to God, are we really saved?

Notice that the ESV translation here uses the word “reassure.” This means that we were assured previously that we belonged to God, but we now need to have that assurance confirmed to us, we need to be assured again or “reassured.” Other translations of this verse 19 read,

 ¹⁹ This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: NIV

¹⁹ And by this we ^[a]know ^(A)that we are of the truth, and shall ^[b]assure our hearts before Him. NASB

¹⁹ This is how we will know that we belong to the truth^(A) and will reassure our hearts before him. CSB [same as ESV]

I kind of like the NIV, “set our hearts at rest in his presence.”

Sin in our Christian lives can upset our assurance of belonging to God. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his commentary describes how these things can happen in our minds:

“We remember certain things we have done and said… the angry expression, the unworthy thought, the unkind deed…the things you failed to do, the broken vows and pledges… they come back [to our minds] and they condemn…We promised him we would go out to serve Him, but we have not…a voice within says, “You are a dishonorable man, you have no right to pray to God… Who are you to come into the presence of God? We are made conscious of our utter unworthiness and our failure and our smallness and our foulness; our hearts condemn us.” (p. 172, Life in Christ, Studies in 1 John).

It may also come to our minds if we committed out-right rebellion against God – we succumbed to temptation and did something we knew was wrong and we did it anyway. “High-handed sin” it can be called. We totally disregarded God and did what we wanted. Christians can do this; we are not immune from this type of flagrant sin. And if we commit such sin, it can lead to self-condemnation, or accusation from the devil. Martin Luther famously said, “So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: “I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there, I shall be also!”

One of the great themes of the book of 1 John is that of assurance to believers: assurance that they know God in saving faith in Jesus Christ, and that if they sin, which all of us will, there is fresh forgiveness through the on-going power of the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The whole issue of assurance of salvation has always been an important issue for Christians. We are saved by the grace and power of Christ, yet we still sin. This naturally causes us to wonder, “Am I really saved?”

Martin Luther taught that Christians are simultaneously both justified before God but continue to sin. Sin is like a beard on a man’s face that keeps growing back. He exhorted believers to be honest, to recognize sin in our lives, yet deal radically with it – repent of it with all effort, kill it, mortify it. Then rejoice in Christ, and to forward to live a joyful and productive Christian life. I quote from Luther because I think he is very helpful when we consider our old enemy of sin who tries to raise his head and reassert himself in our lives.

What should we do when sin tries to reassert itself in our lives? We need to go back to Romans 6, we need to remember our baptism. We need to remember that our old sinful nature, the “old man,” was buried when Christ was buried, and when Christ rose from the dead, we arose with him, to walk in the newness of life that Christ gives us.

Let me give you a summary of this passage as I see it:

   Walking in deed and truth gives us assurance that we belong to God, that we are his children .

Our assurance can be shaken, especially when we sin, but God’s person and purposes are greater than our human hearts and thoughts. As we love in deed and in truth we gain confidence that we truly belong to God, and we see our prayers being answered.

What does God expect of us, require of us? That we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another. How do you sum up what it means to be a Christian? A Christian is one who believes in God’s Son Jesus Christ and loves the brothers and sisters in the church.

When we do this, whenever we walk in obedience to his commandments, we abide in God, we live in him, we are in communion with him  - we are in him and he is in us. We know this is real because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

We love in deed and in truth by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. In this communion with God we see our prayers being answered and we walk in active fellowship with the living God. 

I said earlier that, based on v. 18, we gain assurance in our Christian lives, assurance that we really belong to him as his beloved children, by “deed-doing” and “truth-keeping.” He tells us there in v. 18 to love “in action and in truth.”

But as we go on in this passage we see two other grounds of assurance for the Christian believer: they are love-giving, and Holy Spirit-abiding. What am I saying here? I’m saying that other evidences in our Christians lives that we really are saved and belong to God is that we give love to our fellow Christians, we love the brethren, and secondly, we abide, we remain, we live and move and have our being in the Holy Spirit.

So I see actually four grounds of assurance in this passage, four evidences that we see in our lives that confirm to us, that assure us,  that we truly belong to Jesus Christ and we are safe and secure in him. Let me repeat what they are:

deed-doing, truth-keeping, love-giving, and Holy Spirit-abiding.

These are four marks or characteristics of all Christian believers:

They will be doing good deeds, good works, to serve others.

They will be keeping the truth of the gospel.

They will be giving of themselves in love to the brothers and sisters in the church.

And they will be continually abiding in the Holy Spirit.

Think about your own Christian life, and I believe you will see these four realities in your life.

It’s interesting that if you read in Article 18 of both the Westminster Confession of Faith and the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 – they are both the same, and both give only two grounds of Christian assurance: belief in the promises of the Gospel and the inward witness of the Spirit.

But the apostle John here gives, as I see it, actually four grounds of Christian assurance, characteristics or qualities that mark our lives:

deed-doing, truth-keeping, love-giving, and Holy Spirit-abiding.

Let’s consider each of these grounds of assurance:

I. Deed-doing

Now I am using this expression, “deed-doing,” to match the other three grounds of assurance because I want to speak of these four grounds of assurance in a fresh way, so maybe it will catch your attention and your thoughts and help make these truths come alive to you.

Instead of saying, when we do good deeds or do good works, this is evidence that the Holy Spirit is living in us and inspiring us to do good works, I just want to express this reality as “deed doing.” I could have said “good works producing.” What does Ephesians 2:10 say? For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. God has saved us so that we will do good works in his name. What are good works? Actions, activities that are good and beneficial to other people, like taking our neighbor to the doctor when he is unable to drive himself, or helping a fellow student understand a hard concept in math class, or preparing food and taking it to someone who has lost a loved one.

Titus 2:14 says that Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. We are not to be nonchalant about doing good works, maybe I’ll do one or two every now and then if it’s convenient, but the text says we are to be “zealous for good works,” eager to do them. Just think of how much Jesus did for us. He was not slack in his service to God, he as eager please his Father and be about the mission that was given him.

So, what is a mark of a true Christian? They are a “deed-doing” person. What did James say in his book, “¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” 

What did the Lord Jesus say? “ …you will recognize them ^(B)by their fruits..”

Good works do not in any way justify us before God or help us earn salvation, but they do naturally flow out of a born-again believer. If you put gasoline into an empty car, it will fire up and run. The Holy Spirit deposited in a person’s life is going to impel them, inspire them, to seek to do good for other people.

Another ground or basis of assurances is

II. Truth-keeping

What does v. 18 say? We are to love others “in truth.” The truth of the gospel, the truths of the Word of God, must be the guiding and authoritative source of what we believe and teach.

The book of 1 John stresses the importance of believing in the incarnation of the Son of God in our human flesh and his physical resurrection from the dead. Those who deny these truths are outside the Christian camp. There can be no compromise on the truths of the gospel, Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection and ascension, on our need to come to him in repentance and faith to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

The person who believes the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who believes the promises in the Word of God, has a firm bedrock for their faith and confidence that they are savingly connected to Jesus Christ. What does the scripture say? “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” The resurrected Son of God has the power to save sinners, to cleanse them from sin, and give them new life in himself.

And then there is a third ground of Christian assurance:

III. Love-giving

Verse 18 says we must love in action and truth. The book of 1 John has been telling us that:

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. (1 John 2:10)

By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 1 Jo. 3:10

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 1 John 3:11

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 1 John 3:14

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 1 Jo. 3:16

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 1 Jo. 3:17

It cannot be any clearer, can it? Love for the brothers and sisters, especially in our local church, is fundamental to what it means to be a Christian.

And if we have this kind of love, it is a ground of assurance that we are a true Christian.

Maybe you have sinned and are feeling guilty, feeling condemned before God,  maybe ashamed of yourself. Maybe a person is even wondering if they really are a true believer.

What should they do? Ask themselves, “Do I love the people of God in the church? Do I have a sincere affection for them? Do I care about them? Am I willing to sacrifice myself in their behalf? If I see this kind of sincere love in my life for the brothers and sisters, it can calm my heart and assure me that I really am a true believer. Not a perfect person, but a true believer who sincerely cares for the people of God.

And then there is a fourth ground of assurance:

IV. Holy Spirit-abiding.

Verse 24 says, “²⁴ Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God,^[d] and God^[e] in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

The first part of this verse is related to the first ground of assurance, “deed-doing” – doing good works, that is, keeping the commandments of God. A person who keeps the commands of God is a person who is in a relationship with God. A person cannot keep the commands of God in his own human strength. He must abide in God to do this. It is impossible to keep God’s command apart from the help and presence of God.

The secrete, the power, the dynamic of a fruitful Christian life is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit brings us to faith in Christ and he is the one who continues to work in our lives to enable us to grow in Christ. “He who began ^(B)a good work in you ^(C)will bring it to completion at ^(D)the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). And “ it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

The secret power of the Christian life is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. That is why it is certain that a believer will more and more leave off sinning and more and more take up the righteousness of Christ. It is the Spirit at work in his or her life.

That is why 1 John says that the one who is in Christ will not continue to sin. Sin will no more be the dominating principle and force in their lives. The force in their lives has been mortally wounded by the Spirit of God. It is dying but still thrashing about and trying to do damage but its days are numbered. As Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:57, “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Hear these stanzas about the ministry of the Holy Spirit from the Baptist Hymnal of 1975:

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;

Wean it from earth; thro’ all its pulses move;

Stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art,

And make me love thee as I ought to love.

or

Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, With all thy quick’ning powers

Kindle a flame of sacred love I these old heart of ours.

Or

O Breath  of Love, come breathe within us, Renewing

Thought and will and hear; Come, Love of Christ, afresh to

win us, Revive thy church in ev’ry part.

This is the Holy Spirit abiding, the fourth ground of assurance for the Christian believer. Oh, blessed Spirit of God, that he would descend from heaven and condescend to indwell these sinful hearts, and change them from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh!

The Apostle Paul writes about the Spirit in Romans 8: 15-16,”… you have received the Spirit of ^(C)adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ^(D)“Abba! Father!” ^16 (E)The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

How would you describe a Cristian person in this world. John gives us an excellent summary in verse. 23, And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

So we believe the true doctrine of Jesus Christ and we exercise that faith by loving one another. This is the true religion and eternal life.

So, if we feel condemned and guilty before God because we have sinned, let us not despair, but take comfort in the marks of true regeneration, of true spiritual life, that is true and real in the heart of every Christian:

deed-doing, truth-keeping, love-giving, and Holy Spirit-abiding.

If we do these things, we do well and can assure our hearts that we belong to him and he belongs to us.

To [God] be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph. 3:21).

Prayer:

Gracious God, our Father, great is your salvation, rich and free is the grace you give is to believe and follow you, strong and true is your Word which sanctifies us and matures us in Christ. Precious is the fellowship of your people, and comforting and strengthening is the presence of your Spirit in our hearts. Enable us to grow in all these things for your glory, for our own blessedness, and for the spread of the gospel in the world. In Jesus’ name we pray and give you thanksgiving. Amen.